It is known in motor vehicles to provide an auxiliary restraint belt for the purpose of restraining a child seat upon the vehicle occupant seat. One such auxiliary restraint belt has a latch plate mounted on the end thereof and adapted to latch into the conventional seat belt buckle which is mounted on the vehicle for receiving the adult restraint belt. However, because different vehicles are equipped with buckles made to differing specifications by different manufacturers, the auxiliary restraint belt for the child seat must have a latch plate which is configured to mate with the buckle of the particular vehicle. This leads to a proliferation of the child restraint belts as each must have a latch plate for fitting into the buckle of the particular vehicle.
It is also known to provide a child restraint belt having a hook mounted on the end thereof and adapted to snap into an aperture provided in a mounting bracket mounted on the vehicle. However, the use of such a belt having a hook on the end thereof necessitates the separate mounting of an apertured mounting bracket on the motor vehicle, either as standard equipment by the auto manufacturer or as an aftermarket installation by the vehicle user who wishes to restrain the child seat.
It would be desirable to provide an improved seat belt buckle assembly which could receive either a latch plate of the adult restraint belt or could receive a hook mounted on the end of a child restraint belt.